Unidentified persons dupe Pune civil engineer of Rs 1.85 crore over five years

"People should know to not fall for such calls and cross verify any calls they received about their money. Every bank account holder has been sent a text message about not sharing their information with unidentified callers. It is surprising to see educated people fall for such scams. At least place one call to your bank to see if they have asked for such details. Do not get any work done through agents," said police inspector Khule.

It started in 2013 when someone called him saying that someone was trying to claim benefits of his LIC policy (which was up for maturity). In the process of rectifying the issue, the person made him pay for and buy various things(HT FILE PHOTO)

A civil engineer was duped of Rs 1.85 crore by many people in the past five years. The complaint was filed by Sunil Nandankar, 55, an employee of Hindustan Petroleum, currently posted in Manchar, Nashik. While Nandankar worked in Manchar, his family lives in Shewalewadi area of Hadapsar.

"It started in 2013 when someone called him saying that someone was trying to claim benefits of his LIC policy (which was up for maturity). In the process of rectifying the issue, the person made him pay for and buy various things," said police inspector (crime) VV Khule, who is investigating the case. One such investment was a membership of a private club for Rs 50,000, according to the police. Nandankar has listed around 122 such transactions initiated from his account to various accounts belonging to banks like Axis, HDFC, KMC, Canara banks, among others.

A case under Sections 419 (personation), 420 (cheating) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 66(c)(d) of Information Technology Act was registered against unidentified persons at the Hadapsar police station.

The police are yet to verify the reason behind the decision to file a case after five years and whether all the transactions were made to the same group of people.

"People should know to not fall for such calls and cross verify any calls they received about their money. Every bank account holder has been sent a text message about not sharing their information with unidentified callers. It is surprising to see educated people fall for such scams. At least place one call to your bank to see if they have asked for such details. Do not get any work done through agents," said PI Khule.

Different departments of the city police have warned citizens on multiple occasions to not share crucial information lie one time password, credit or debit card details with callers who claim to be service providers like banks.

"I also currently have a case about a similar fraud of Rs 35,000 where the man shared his own credit card details as well as his wife's debit card details. Now why should one do that?" PI Khule said.

The question about how the caller received the man's policy number and details of Nandankar was yet to be answered.